Communication link termination indication signal method and apparatus

ABSTRACT

Upon detecting at a two-way communication device that a communication link has been terminated, the two-way communication device can provide a unique corresponding signal (such as a unique audible signal) to indicate such termination. Pursuant to one approach, a plurality of such unique signals are available and a specific one of the available signals is selected for use in a given circumstance using a selection criteria of choice.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/536,449, filed Nov. 7, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/919,334, filed Jun. 17, 2013, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/757,800, filed Jun.4, 2007, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/437,754, filed May 18, 2006 (now abandoned), which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/075,249,filed Mar. 8, 2005 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,684,830, issued Mar. 23, 2012),the contents of each incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to communication link usage and moreparticularly to communication link status indication.

BACKGROUND

Communication devices comprise a generally well-understood area ofendeavor including, but not limited to, two-way communications basedupon, for example, wireless cellular telephony and the like. In manycommunication systems the system infrastructure will assign or otherwisefacilitate the allocation of wireless resources (such as, but notlimited to, radio frequency carriers, time slots, spreading codes, andso forth) to support a given communication session. The constituentelements and the totality of such allocated wireless resources can beviewed as a communication link.

There are times when confusion can arise with respect to whether a givencommunication link continues to persist or whether that link has, infact, become terminated. For example, a given user may perceive,incorrectly, that a given communication link has been terminated whenthey conclude their conversation with another party but fail to take anappropriate action to actually effect the termination of thatcommunication link (for example, some cellular telephones may requirethe user to assert an “END” button to cause the device to activelyeffect termination of a presently extant wireless communication link).When this occurs, the system will typically continue to monitor andtrack the duration of the communication link's persistence foraccounting purposes. This, in turn, can lead to unexpected and undesirednetwork usage, wasted resources, and higher-than-expected accountbilling for the user.

As another example, wireless communication links are subject to variousoperational circumstances that can lead to abrupt termination of thecommunication link. For example, a given user may move from one cellsite to another cell site that has no currently available resources tocommit to supporting a present conversation being conducted by thatuser. When this happens, there is typically no specific indication tothe user that such a drop in services has occurred. Instead, the usermay continue to engage in their part of the conversation until finallydetermining that they are receiving no response from the other party.Such circumstances can significantly negatively impact user experience,in part owing to the problem of determining how much information wasactually conveyed to the other party in order to later continue thatconversation with as little overlap or missed information content aspossible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above needs are at least partially met through provision of thecommunication link termination indication signal method and apparatusdescribed in the following detailed description, particularly whenstudied in conjunction with the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance with variousembodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance with variousembodiments of the invention; and

FIG. 3 comprises a block diagram as configured in accordance withvarious embodiments of the invention.

Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures areillustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily beendrawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioningof some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative toother elements to help to improve understanding of various embodimentsof the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements thatare useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are oftennot depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of thesevarious embodiments of the present invention. It will further beappreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described ordepicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in theart will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence isnot actually required. It will also be understood that the terms andexpressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to suchterms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respectiveareas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwisebeen set forth herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Generally speaking, pursuant to these various embodiments, upondetermining that a communication link for a communication device isterminating, a unique corresponding signal is provided at thecommunication device to indicate termination of that communication linkto a user of the communication device. In a preferred approach thecorresponding signal is unique in that the signal is not used for otherannunciation or notice purposes. For example, the communication devicewill not use this signal to also indicate the existence of an incomingcall.

In a preferred approach the unique signal comprises an audible signal.In an optional but preferred approach, a plurality of candidate uniquesignals are available at the communication device. So configured, auser, for example, can select particular candidate unique signals to usein particular circumstances or settings to customize their userexperience to their satisfaction. The unique signal itself can compriseany of a wide variety of audible or other content, including but notlimited to musical content, verbal content, sound effects content, andso forth.

So configured, a user will receive a positive indication whenever acommunication link being used by their communication device terminates.This, in turn, can be used to assure the user that the communicationlink is, in fact, operational at times when the user expects thecommunication link to be operational and terminated at times when theuser expects termination to occur. If desired, these assurances aredelivered in a customized and pleasing fashion that enhances andpersonalizes the user experience.

These and other benefits may become clearer upon making a thoroughreview and study of the following detailed description. Referring now tothe drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, a two-way communicationdevice of choice (such as, but not limited to, cellular telephones andother two-way radios of various kinds and types, including platformshaving voice and/or data modes of operation) detects 11 when a presentlyestablished communication link is terminating. This can comprise, forexample, determining at the communication device itself that a wirelesscommunication link is terminating.

Various kinds of communication links are known in the art andconsequently the details regarding detecting the termination of anyparticular communication will necessarily differ with variations in theenabling technology as will be well understood by those skilled in theart. In many cases the communication device will become aware of suchtermination when an otherwise present signal (such as a pilot signal,handshake signal, or other expected and recurrent signal) becomesabsent. In other cases the communication device may become aware (orconfirm) such termination by itself initiating a transmission to whichno expected or required response occurs.

In the absence of detecting such termination, the communication devicecan continue with its other usual and ordinary activities. Upondetecting such termination, however, the communication device canoptionally select 12 a unique signal (for example, from amongst aplurality of candidate unique signals 13). The unique signal willcomprise, in general a user-discernable signal such as a unique auditorysignal, visual signal, or haptic sensation (such as a vibrationpattern).

In a preferred approach the unique signal comprises an audible signal.The audio signal content itself can comprise any known orhereafter-developed audio signal content including but not limited to amonophonic series of tones, a polyphonic series of tones, and/ordigitized audio (such as MP3-compatible digitized audio). Such audiosignal content examples are all well understood in the art and requireno further elaboration here. In a preferred approach such an audiblesignal can comprise any audible content that is capable of uniquelyidentifying a termination event as disclosed below. A non-exhaustivelisting of representative examples would include: a commercial jingle; acommercial tagline; a sound sample; a sound effect sample; verbalcontent; and music (including both instrumental music and musicfeaturing sung lyrics). The signal can essentially have any desiredduration. In many cases, it may be preferable to have a relatively shortunique signal having a duration that does not exceed some predeterminedmaximum duration (such as, for example, three seconds, ten seconds,three minutes, and so forth).

When a plurality of such unique signals are available to a givencommunication device, this selection step 12 will typically compriseselection of a particular signal from amongst the plurality of availablesignals. The selection criteria itself can vary with the needs and/orrequirements of a given application and setting. To illustrate, one canselect a particular unique signal from amongst a plurality of availableunique signals as a function, at least in part, of at least one of: aspecific other communication party (for example, a specific one of theavailable unique signals can be used when signaling the termination of acommunication link that had been used to facilitate a communication witha specific third party); a time of day (for example, one unique signalmight be used to indicate termination of communication links as mayoccur prior to noon and another, different unique signal might be usedto indicate termination of communication links as may occur followingnoon); a random selection amongst the available unique signals; the typeof communication link that has been terminated (for example, one uniquesignal might be used to indicate termination of a cellular communicationlink and another, different unique signal might be used to indicatetermination of a Bluetooth communication link); a duration of thecommunication link prior to being terminated (for example, one uniquesignal might be used to indicate termination of a communication linkthat has been active for less than five minutes and another, differentunique signal might be used to indicate termination of a communicationlink that has been active for more than five minutes); to name but afew.

Pursuant to these teachings, the communication unit then provides 14 aunique corresponding signal at the communication device to indicatetermination of the communication link. In a preferred approach theprovided unique signal will comprise the previously selected uniquesignal when a particular signal has been optionally selected fromamongst a plurality of unique signals as described above. Various waysare known in the art to effect the provision of such unique signals asare mentioned above. Furthermore, these teachings are not particularlysensitive to the selection and/or use of any particular approach in thisregard. Therefore, for the sake of brevity and the preservation ofnarrative focus, further detailed description of such techniques willnot be provided here.

As a more specific example, these teachings can be employed tofacilitate a unique audible notice as to when a wireless communicationlink has become terminated for whatever reason. More particularly, atleast one audible signal can be provided at a two-way wirelesscommunication device, which audible signal is uniquely used to identifytermination of the wireless communication link but which is not to beused to identify other events, conditions, and/or states at thiscommunication device. Upon then detecting at the two-way wirelesscommunication device that a given wireless communication link has beenterminated, the audible signal can be rendered audible to therebyprovide a unique audible signal to a user of the two-way wirelesscommunication device that the given wireless communication link has beenterminated.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are various ways toprovision such a two-way communication device with one or more suchunique signals. Pursuant to one approach, the device can simply beloaded with one or more such signals as a factory preset. Pursuant toanother approach, and referring now again to FIG. 1, one or more suchunique signals can optionally be downloaded 15 to the two-waycommunication device. Such downloading can be facilitated in any of awide variety of manners in accordance with well understood prior arttechnique, including by transmission of the corresponding data to thetwo-way communication device using a wireless carrier channel.

Upon downloading such a signal, it will then typically be desirable tostore 16 the downloaded unique signal for future use. Such storage canbe conditioned as desired. For example, a pre-established limit may beprovided to prevent storage and/or use of the downloaded signal beyond agiven date, time, or event. In other cases, it may be preferable topermit unconditioned use of downloaded unique signals.

Optionally, and referring now to FIG. 2, upon provisioning and/or beingotherwise informed of usage of such unique signals 21 with respect to agiven two-way communication device, an appropriate accounting platformfor the service provider can facilitate assessing 22 a correspondingfee. For example, a specific one-time fee may be assessed for eachdownloaded unique signal. As another example, a fee may be assessed foreach time the unique signal is used by a given two-way communicationdevice. As yet another example, a monthly fee may be assessed for solong as a given communication device retains the stored unique signal.Other possibilities exist as well as will be well recognized by thoseskilled in the art.

As noted above, these teachings can be usefully employed in conjunctionwith a wide variety of communications platforms. In many cases, as willbe well understood by those skilled in the art, modern communicationdevices comprise partially or even wholly programmable platforms thatcan be readily configured to adopt and implement the describedfunctionality. As a more specific illustrative example, and referringnow to FIG. 3, a given communication device 30 can comprise, in relevantpart, a communication link termination detector 31 of choice thatoperably couples to, for example, a transceiver 32. So configured, thecommunication link termination detector 31 serves, at least in part, tomonitor the operation of the transceiver 32 and in particular to detectwhen a communication link (such as a wireless communication link) beingused by the transceiver 32 has been terminated for whatever reason.

The communication link termination detector 31, in turn, operablycouples to a signal driver 33 such as, in a preferred approach, anaudible signal driver. The latter serves to drive a user perceivablesignal output 34 of choice and as may be appropriate to compatiblyaudibilize the signal content of choice. In a preferred approach, thesignal driver 33 operably couples to a memory 35 having one or moreaudible signals stored therein. So configured, the signal driver 33 canselect a particular one of a plurality of stored audible signals whenthe memory 35 has a corresponding plurality of such signals storedtherein.

So configured, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciatethat such an apparatus will readily detect the termination of acommunication link and respond to such detection by providing a signal,such as an audible signal, that uniquely identifies the communicationlink termination event. This, in turn, permits a user of the device tobe well informed with respect to the presence and/or absence of a viablecommunication link and can use and leverage that understanding withfollow-on actions of choice to best accommodate a given condition.

There may be times, however, when a user may wish to temporarily defeatthe above-described operability. For example, a given user may wish todisable this capability for some period of time while engaged in aparticular activity or while visiting a particular venue. As anotherexample, a given user may wish to effect an early conclusion of aprovided signal during playback. To accommodate such a need, if desired,a user-selectable signal driver inhibit 36 can be operably coupled tothe signal driver 33 to permit and facilitate such an action. Such amechanism can assume any suitable form factor and human-machineinterface of choice, including but not limited to push buttons, slidingswitches, touch screen displays, a voice recognition interface, and soon.

It should now be evident and clear that these teachings permit a user tobe apprised of when a communication link, such as a wirelesscommunication link, has been terminated. This information can be used invarious ways. In particular, such an indication can be used to correctlyinform a user who otherwise incorrectly believes that a givencommunication link is available and active. Such an indication, whenexpected but absent, can also serve to inform a user that a givencommunication link remains viable and active notwithstanding a contraryuser impression. Many users will appreciate that such information,important in and of itself, is also capable of being delivered in apersonalized and highly customizable manner. Those skilled in the artwill appreciate that these benefits are attainable with littlefundamental change to many communication devices being necessary. Ingeneral, these teachings can be implemented in a highly cost effectivemanner.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that a wide variety ofmodifications, alterations, and combinations can be made with respect tothe above described embodiments without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention, and that such modifications, alterations, andcombinations are to be viewed as being within the ambit of the inventiveconcept.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic communication device, comprising: asignal processor configured to communicate over one or more activewireless communications links, each wireless communications link beingconfigured to transmit voice signals and data signals different from thevoice signals; memory storing data representing a termination signal forindicating termination of an active wireless communications link, thetermination signal comprising at least one of a visual signal or anaudio signal; an output device comprising at least one of a displayscreen or an audible signal driver; a transceiver; and a communicationlink termination detector configured to perform operations of monitoringthe transceiver and detecting the termination of the active wirelesscommunications link; wherein the signal processor is configured to causethe termination signal to be supplied to the output device in responseto the communication link termination detector determining thetermination of the active wireless communication link, wherein thetermination signal is operable to correct a user impression that thewireless communications link is still active; wherein determining thetermination of the active wireless communications link comprises:detecting absence of an expected and recurring signal; confirming thatthe absence indicates the termination of the active wirelesscommunications link, including initiating a transmission over thewireless communications link, the transmission corresponding to anexpected response; and determining the termination of the activewireless communications link upon determining that the expected responseis not received by the communication link termination detector.
 2. Theelectronic communication device of claim 1, wherein the signal processoris configured to permit a user to change the termination signal.
 3. Theelectronic communication device of claim 1, wherein the terminationsignal is user-selectable.
 4. The electronic communication device ofclaim 1, wherein the memory further stores data representing a vibrationpattern.
 5. The electronic communication device of claim 4, wherein thesignal processor is configured to cause the vibration pattern to besupplied to a haptic sensation output device of the electroniccommunication device in response to determining the termination of theactive wireless communication link.
 6. The electronic communicationdevice of claim 1, wherein the display screen is a touch sensitivedisplay screen.
 7. The electronic communication device of claim 1,wherein the electronic communication device is configured to performoperations comprising, prior to supplying the visual signal to thedisplay screen, indicating that the communications link is active. 8.The electronic communication device of claim 1, wherein detecting thetermination of the active wireless communication link comprisesdetecting a reason of the termination.
 9. A method comprising:communicating, by a signal processor of an electronic communicationdevice and over one or more active wireless communications links withone or more other devices, the communicating including transmittingvoice signals and data signals different from the voice signals;storing, on the electronic communication device, data representing atermination signal for indicating termination of an active wirelesscommunications link for transmitting the cellular telephone voice callsignals or the data signals, the termination signal comprising at leastone of a visual signal or an audio signal; detecting the termination bya communication link termination detector coupled to a transceiver ofthe electronic communication device and monitoring the transceiver ofthe electronic communication device; and in response to detecting thetermination, supplying, by the signal processor of the electroniccommunication device, the termination signal to an output device of theelectronic communication device, wherein: the termination signal isoperable to correct a user impression that the wireless communicationslink is still active, the output device comprises at least one of adisplay screen or an audible signal driver, and detecting thetermination of the active wireless communications link comprises:detecting absence of an expected and recurring signal; confirming thatthe absence indicates the termination of the active wirelesscommunications link, including initiating a transmission over thewireless communications link, the transmission corresponding to anexpected response; and determining the termination of the activewireless communications link upon determining that the expected responseis not received by the communication link termination detector.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, wherein the signal processor is operable to change afactory preset of the termination signal.
 11. The method of claim 9,wherein the termination signal is user-selectable.
 12. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the display screen is a touch-sensitive display screen.13. The method of claim 9, wherein the termination signal is not used inthe electronic communication device for other enunciation or notice. 14.The method of claim 9, wherein the signal processor is configured tosupply a vibration signal to a haptic sensation output device ofelectronic communication device in response to determining thetermination of the telephone call.
 15. The method of claim 9, whereindetecting the termination of the active wireless communication linkcomprises detecting a reason of the termination.
 16. The electroniccommunication device of claim 1, comprising a user interface thatincludes at least one of a push button, a sliding switch, a touch screendisplays, or a voice recognition interface.
 17. The electroniccommunication device of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores datarepresenting the visual signal.